So let us talk about grass.
In my "spare" time in the RAF, I helped run an RAFGSA Gliding Club (from 1963 until 1979). I was an instructor for most of those years and ended up as the CFI.
We had a USAF exchange officer (not aircrew) at one point who was a first class chap and was well ready to go solo but he simply could not get the hang of landing.
His instructor asked me to fly with him. The first landing was not good. When we got on to finals for the second time, I asked him if he could see the winch (which was about a mile away at the other end of the airfield). He said that he could so I told him to ignore everything else around him and try to hit the winch driver!
He did the nicest daisy cutter you have ever seen. Obviously, he was looking "too close".
I sent him solo.
So, open grass is different (not grass runways) and, I suspect, so is water.
P.S. If Nic.Van.V ex-USAF is reading this, we remember you with fondness!